Posts Tagged ‘anime’

I just finished watching the last few episodes of Haibane Renmei. It’s not the typical anime that would normally appeal to me and I hadn’t even heard of it till I happened to see clips of it from an anime music video. It’s only 13 episodes long and it’s a sad but sweet story that I really enjoyed.

The pacing of it and the feeling I got while watching this show was similar to how I feel when watching My Neighbor Totoro for the ump-teenth time. Which is a good thing because I absolutely love Totoro. Haibane Renmei just seems similar to me for some reason. There’s no real action, no bad guy, no ‘obvious’ conflict. I wrote more but deleted it. If anyone is actually inspired to watch this short series, I’d hate to give away any clues as to what happens. All I want to say is that this is the type of story that will have the more sensitive types with at least a few tears.

And for those who see the characters in this have halos and feathered wings and immediately dismiss the show then it’s your loss. The characters may look something like angels but there’s nothing religious about the series. It has its own mythologies and beliefs that, as far as I could tell, should offend no ones sensibilities.

If this sounds like something you’d like, I would definitely recommend at least a rental. I watched it in Japanese with English subtitles. I know some people are put off by subtitles but they aren’t bad at all here. The dialog is easy to follow.